


The Lord of Time

by user_name



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Attempt at Humor, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-21
Updated: 2014-01-21
Packaged: 2018-01-09 05:23:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1141974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/user_name/pseuds/user_name
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Excerpt from chapter coming soon:</p><p> "Percy, Percy, Percy," he said mockingly.  A smirk teased the side of his mouth and he ran a hand through his hair, gold eyes glittering evilly.</p><p> I hated his stupid smirk.</p><p> "Luke, Luke, Luke" I replied. </p><p> In retrospect, that probably wasn't such a good idea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. PERCY

The world ended when Leo Valdez poked the father of all Titans in the eye.

It had started out as a regular day in the Roman camp. The satyrs (I mean, fauns) were stealing quesadillas from the Roman pavilion, pegasuses (no wait, pegasi) were flying through the perfect sky, and campers were screaming for the latest blood-stacle course between the Roman and Greek representatives. I was clinging onto the rock wall for my dear neck, because a blood-stacle course is exactly what it sounds like -- an obstacle course, with a lot of blood.

I looked down at the crowd of teens wearing orange and purple, jeering and yelling. "Kill the PIG!" I heard someone scream through a megaphone. I hoped the pig wasn't me. When Reyna had told me she was planning an event to bring the Greek and Roman campers together, this had not been what I was expecting.

I looked down again. I would be representing orange, of course. A drip of sweat slid off my forehead and onto an unfortunate crowd member below. I tried not to think about how my pits were sweating like crazy as I managed to pull myself up the wall another inch.

"You know," I grunted to Jason, "I don't understand why Leo didn't come. This isn't so bad - at least it's not bloody."

The crowd below started to shout in confusion. They seemed to be wondering why Jason and I weren't moving, or fighting, or whatever. I don't think either of us were in a hurry to win the course. We had survived our quest by working together, so the idea of competing against him seemed plain weird. When I turned my head, I could see Jason swaying in the wind, enjoying himself. I grinned at him. He grinned back.

I imagined Octavian somewhere in the crowd, glaring up at the twisted blood-stacle and wondering why the two idiots weren't moving. His fat, gutted teddy bears would be around his waist and swaying pathetically in the breeze. Ever since we had returned from our quest, Octavian had seemed paler than usual, with dark circles appearing under his eyes.

Jason shook his head. His hair flapped around. It had gotten bleached by the sun into soft white wisps. It made him look kind of cool, I guess. "I have a feeling this isn't the hard part of the blood-stacle. The Vulcan cabin told me they added some "choice modifications" while we were on our quest." Then he smiled. "Besides, I think Leo's busy." Jason nodded his head toward the direction of the lake. Far below, I could make out a figure leaning down at the shore, and staring into the depths of the water. Leo had finally spotted one of those nymph girls.

I was about to decide how I would tease Leo about liking a girl who lived in water when there was a huge jolt from the wall.

I shouted and struggled to hold on. "Oooooohhhh my-y-y-y goooo-o-o-ds!!" My voice shook as I was jiggled up and down. "I am not jello-o-o-o!" My head smacked against the wall and I saw Jason. He had done a face plant against the climbing wall when it had suddenly lurched forwards. I thought he had dyed a streak of his hair I hadn't noticed before, but then I realized it was blood. _"Great. Just great."_ Out loud I asked, "Jason? Hey, um, you okay?

     He moaned and made the OK sign with his hand. "I think that was the hard part of the blood-stacle I told you about. Grab onto me and I'll fly us to the top. There's no point hanging here if we're going to get shaken off." Before I could protest, he manipulated the winds and floated me unceremoniously into his arms, Superman style. So, I guess I was the helpless girl.

     He flew up to the top of the wall and had the winds let me down. "Woah," I said. "This is ..." I had landed at the top of a large concrete platform. Deadly steel spikes popped out of random holes a few feet farther. Then there was a pool of lava and even later, a jungle of ropes. My jaw dropped. "This is awesome."

     The blood-stacle was still shaking, but it was less noticeable at the top. The cheers from the crowd seemed weirdly muffled. Jason took out a large coin from his pocket and flipped it. A wickedly sharp gold sword appeared. It was the specialty of Leo, a gift after Jason's old one had snapped. Jason yelled and charged at the spikes, chopping off the tips with his sword wherever they appeared. It reminded me of an insane game of Whack-a-Mole, demigod style.

     I joined in after the first few seconds and then Jason whisked me across the pit of lava with a clumsy gust of wind. He landed after me. I suddenly realized something. "Hey, you didn't have to carry me as you were flying me up that time. You could have just whisked me up."

"What, are you going to whine about it?" Jason smirked at me before starting to swing across the ropes.

What happened next almost made me uh, ruin my shorts. There was a huge jerk from the whole blood-stacle. Jason fell off the rope he had been grabbing. A giant spike appeared from a panel directly under Jason. I rushed to catch him, but someone beat me to it. A dark figure had melted into existence. It grabbed Jason around the waist roughly, pushing him to safety, but it accidentally impaled itself onto the spike. My eyes grew huge.

Jason fell onto the concrete, gasping. His wide eyes met mine as he scrambled up hastily and looked down. It was Nico.

Chapter 3: Ziplock Baggies Save the Day

"NICO!" I ran over to him. His stomach had gone clean through the spike. He tried to move, and all of us winced when it made a terrible squelching sound.

"Uugh," he moaned. I reached over to help him, but he snapped and clenched his teeth at me. "Don't. Touch. Me."

Jason frowned. "Why were you following us?" I stared at him. That wasn't exactly the question you asked someone who had just saved your life.

Nico struggled to take a deep breath, and it came out wavering. I tried not to notice how blood was leaking out of him by the second. "Give me my pack first ... there's some pomegranate seeds ... I need them." he mumbled. There was a black backpack that had fallen off of his shoulder and landed next to me in the commotion. I fumbled through it and fished out a pack of the seeds.

"Uh, here." I opened the Ziplock Baggie and dumped the seeds unceremoniously into his open mouth. The bleeding immediately stopped, but he still looked pale, like all the blood had drained out of him anyways.

He crunched calmly for some time, eyes closed. I looked at Jason. He shrugged and looked down at Nico with a little frown. I dimly realized that the cheers of the campers standing below sounded different. They had turned to screams.

Nico seemed to read my thoughts. He gave a thin, creepy smile and I got the feeling that he could see me, even though his eyes were closed. Streams of sticky red pomegranate juice slid down the side of his mouth as he started to talk quickly. "Last night I had a dream about Gaea coming back at this very place, so I shadow traveled with you two up the blood-stacle. A couple of minutes later, the walls started to shake and everyone thought that was part of the course, but it wasn't. It was Gaea messing with us. Then there was that huge jerk, and that's when the earthquake happened and I saw you fall off the rope, so ..." Nico took a deep breath and stared expectantly at us.

"Thanks," Jason said softly. Then his eyes snapped back to me. He looked confident, determined, and maybe a little mad. "Percy, you stay here with Nico. I need to see if the others are alright."

"But -" I started to protest.

"Please." There was a big glare in his eyes that seemed harsher than just "please." So I shut up. I watched him jump off the edge of the platform, leaving me alone with Nico and making me feel more than a little useless.

\-------------  
Chapter 4:Annabeth Rides a Giant Finger

How could Jason have just left me here? With Nico? I had no idea how to help him. I was freaked out enough that he would die on me. Just to shake that feeling of uselessness, I turned to him. "So Nico ..." I started. But Nico wasn't there. The spike was bare. "What ...?" There was a sudden whoosh of darkness to my right, and he popped out, no blood, no damage.

I gaped at him. He frowned and looked away.

"Did shadow travel just heal your innards?" I blurted. Did the guy even have any innards? I'd never seen him eat before.

He grabbed my arm instead of replying. Without any warning, I was sucked in with him, collapsing and liquefying into a shadow. "Aagh!" I had been going for a scream, but the breath got sucked out of me when I entered the shadow. Nico and I popped into existence, and I made a very heroic sounding squeak.

I caught my breath and looked around. The camp was in chaos; wide cracks split the earth, and campers were either screaming and running away or screaming and charging at the giant earthen hands that were popping up out of the cracks.

Yes, giant hands. Made of earth. They mostly just popped out and twiddled thumbs with other hands, but a few of them slapped campers around, each slap sending them sprawling. I spotted Annabeth riding a finger like it was a bucking bronco and I was about to run and help her stab it, but I stopped when a sudden intense ray of light intruded the camp.

There was a golden globe of searing light forming in the middle of the basketball courts. There was a sudden silence as campers dropped their swords and hands stopped moving to gawp and stare at the globe. Though I'm not sure how the hands could see it without any eyes. Even the finger Annabeth was riding on wildly stopped bucking. Though I vaguely noticed Annabeth slapping it.

The globe got bigger. I squinted my eyes. Some of the campers around me turned away or covered their eyes. But I had to see ... was that a human figure moving around in the orb? I looked around wildly for Nico. This felt bad. Really bad.

"Nico!" I turned around to find him, and just in the nick of time. As I turned around the globe had exploded, washing the whole camp with painfully bright golden light. The light of a god, in his true form.

The light faded quickly. Sounds of groans started to fill the air. The camp looked mostly normal, if not for the giant hands sticking out of random cracks in the earth and a few campers standing around, looking dazed. "Dazed," I reminded myself, "but not hurt."

I saw Connor helping his brother Travis up. Travis was groaning along with a dozen other campers that were lying on the ground in a neat line. Travis rubbed his behind and muttered, "Stupid hand. I can't believe it flicked all of us onto the ground." He got up and shared identical evil grins with his brother as they gave the giant hand the finger.

I laughed, wanting to stick around and see if the giant hand would return the gesture, but I heard a scream from somewhere behind me. A clearing was forming in the middle of the basketball courts.

I ran toward the clearing where I had heard the scream. Was someone hurt? Where was Annabeth? What if ...  
I shook my head and pushed my way to the clearing. A blonde kid was lying in the middle of the crater, where I assumed the orb had formed. But it wasn't Annabeth. It was a guy. I felt my heart stop when I saw his face.


	2. JASON

I was feeling stupid. I had dived over the edge of a blood-stacle, playing super tough guy, only to get smacked into the ground by a giant hand made of dirt. I ended up face planting on the ground, and then getting blasted five feet in the air by a huge shockwave when a golden ball thingy exploded. 

I rubbed the dirt clods out of my mouth and nose and eyes, and slowly realized that campers were forming a crowd around the center of the largest basketball court. I moved through the throng of muttering campers ("Excuse me," "sorry," "no, I did not step on your foot") and saw the source of all the amazement. It was a black crater in the exact spot where the golden ball of light had exploded.

There was a guy lying in the crater. His clothes were charred and crispy at the edges, so parts of his shirt and pants crackled apart like thin pieces of charcoal when he got up. Hopefully his pants didn't crumble apart. That would be kind of embarrassing. 

I spotted Percy across the crowd, his face looking blanched. I couldn't tell what he was thinking, but he looked sick. 

I looked back at Mr. Crispy Pants. He must be a minor god. What guys were there that could radiate celestial light? He looked surprisingly relaxed for someone who had just exploded into a camp full of weapon clad demigods. 

His hair was sandy blonde, and there was something about him that seemed ...familiar? It was when he got up that it struck me. It was the guy I had seen a year before, in a picture on Thalia's wall. Annabeth had looked ready to cry when I asked her who he was.

"Speaking of Annabeth..." My eyes searched across the crowd and I saw her. She had just finished chopping up one of the giant hands, which melted back into the earth after she killed it. 

"Luke? What in Hades are you doing here?" Annabeth had charged forward at Crispy Pants, each step radiating with anger, blonde hair streaming behind her and a murderous look on her face. She pushed him roughly on the chest. Crispy Pants stumbled a bit and took a step back. He looked stricken for a second, and then laughed easily. "Aww, this is the welcome back I get? I love you guys, too." His voice seemed too loud when it echoed through the camp.

Everyone stared at him. The silence was only broken when a coarse haired, buff Greek girl yelled, "KILL HIM! KILL THE TRAITOR PIG!" Then roughly a dozen orange shirted, buff looking teens charged at Crispy Pants. I assumed they were the Ares cabin Percy had told me so much about. 

Crispy Pants waved a panicky hand and shouted, "Stop! Stop it!" He looked scared. "Please," he gasped, bending over and looking winded. 

When he looked up again, no one was attacking him. He had frozen the whole Ares cabin with a wave of his hand. Clarissa was frozen mid pounce, her feet in midair and her brown strands of hair floating still. There was a shocked look on Luke's face as he stared down at his hands. Everyone gaped. Octavian made an overly dramatic Gaaaaasp.

"Di immortales," Annabeth breathed. "How ... What happened to you?"

There was a rise of random confused shouts and chatters as the whole camp erupted in panic and confusion. "Kronos is gonna kill us all! We'll all be frozen! I hate cryogenics!" I heard someone wail.

"Kronos? The Titan? I'm so confused. I have to know what this all means."

I saw Percy. He was frowning as he looked at one of the frozen campers. He tried to pulled on her arm, but it didn't move. He didn't even look up when I walked over. "There's nothing. No pulse, and no movement. I can't believe it. They might even be ..." He sounded sad and angry.

"Percy," someone said firmly. "They're not dead." Percy jumped and turned around as Nico melted out of the shadows.

"Gods, Nico," Percy said weakly. "Could you not do that?" Nico shrugged. 

"They're not dead though. Or else I would feel it. They're perfectly alive. But I don't see how there was no pulse. Unless ... no, that's impossible. Luke's still a mortal." He seemed to be muttering to himself now, biting his lip and looking down.

He looked up with a sudden determination in his eyes. Those eyes were pitch black; not even a glimmer of reflected light in his irises. "Where's Annabeth? We need to find her. Now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This whole story is set before BoO because I haven't read it yet ;( so please, don't tell me if something here doesn't match up with BoO. I don't want spoilers!


	3. LEO

Campers were talking about the upcoming bloody obstacle course whatever thing earlier today, which sounded really cool, but I got distracted on my way there. I had been upgrading my robotic dragon head, Festus, when there was this singing sound. I dropped my pack of mints and my crowbar to find where it was coming from.

It was sweet and sounded like something familiar. I caught a whiff of nutmeg and started wildly following the sound and smell down to the river. Yeah, I know what that sounds like; "That's stupid, Leo. Have you ever heard of something called sirens?" But this was different, I could just swear. 

I saw the water at the river's edge ripple slowly. "Wha -?" I kneeled down and leaned forwards, my hands gripping the edge of the riverbank. There seemed to be something in the water, floating farther and farther upwards. 

I made a stupid little gasp as the water splooshed up my nose. Too late, I snapped my head back. The water had suddenly rushed up towards my face in a small torrent. "Aarghh," I gargled. 

A really traumatizing memory circled in my mind as I panicked from the water in my nose, standing up and flailing my arms around. A couple of days ago there had been a capture the flag tournament, and Percy was on the opposing team. That was the day I realized I was terrified of water.

"Bleargh!" I coughed and spluttered everywhere, moving around like a decapitated cockroach. There was water in my face! "AAAGH!"

"Calm down. You look like an idiot." It was that voice again, sweet and familiar. It sounded like it was trying to sound annoyed. Like it was struggling not to let the smile show in her voice.

Suddenly, I had a good idea. I screwed up my face, heating up like an oven, and ...yes! There was a weird whoosh as I caused all the water to puff off my clothes in a rush of steam. I calmed down and looked behind me a bit for the voice. I felt watched.

Even at the risk of looking completely delusional, I asked uncertainly to the open air, "Calypso?" 

I waited expectantly, almost afraid to believe it. "Calypso?" No, of course not.

"Leo," the voice said urgently. I spun around. The water that had been bubbling in the river had formed into the shape of a girl. Woah. She was hot. And, eh, made of water. 

"Hey, it's you! Uh, why are you a water lady all of a sudden? But, um, you look okay, I mean, fine, nice. Water is ...great. Your head reminds me of a water balloon. Like, a really nice one. So, how's it going? Well, other than having see through clothes. Er, blue clothes.” I cringed. Aach, really Leo? Can you say awkward without sounding awkward?

Water Calypso shook her head, making little beads of water slide down from her hair. "Leo," she clasped my shoulders with her two hands, which I don't know how she managed. She seemed to be made of a watery glue, which kept her from falling apart into a puddle. "I need you to listen. There is potential danger for your friends. He is back, and unstable. You won't recognize him. You must not trust him. Help your friends, Leo." 

"My friends - what? Calypso, who's he?" I felt slow and stunned. This was the worst date ever.

"Names hold power. Remember that, Leo Valdez. There's no time to explain; Poseidon granted me just enough time out of my prison to warn you Perceus is in danger, and -" Calypso couldn't finish her sentence. She started melting, her hair flowing down towards the ground, and her eyes drooping down sadly as she watched her legs sink into water. 

She didn't soak into the ground, but rolled across the ground as a giant bead of water. She was heading towards the river. 

"Wait, no!" I chased the giant bead of water down to the river with a feeling of panic in my chest, but I was too late. The one girl who had liked me back had slipped into a river, swallowed by the water. I thought I heard a sigh as the waves washed over her melted form.

I felt a weird pressure behind my eyes, but I assure you, they were not tears. My eyes were just a little watery, that's all.


	4. PERCY

Annabeth was having a shouting match with Luke. Giant hands made of earth had creeped from their cracks to behind Luke, like they were supporting him in the argument. So yeah, it wasn't exactly hard to find her.

"No, why are you here anyways?" Annabeth sounded hoarse and frustrated. Her face was red. She jabbed at Luke with her dagger, and Luke's eyes widened. It was the dagger he'd given her as a gift. Annabeth was going crazy, stabbing wildly into the air, but it she was still close enough for it to be as scary as Hades. I wanted to go and help her calm down so Jason, Nico and I could say ...whatever Nico had in mind.

"I - " Luke dodged another wild jab from Annabeth. "I. Just. Came. To. Visit!" With each word, Luke parried an attack from Annabeth. On the word "visit," he thrust forward with his sword at Annabeth's throat. Too fast. 

There was something in the way he looked at Annabeth that made me want to throw seaweed on him. Or maybe something a little less lame. His expression reminded me of Travis and Connor, right before they stole something. Focused, but grinning because they knew they would pull it off with ease. I drew Riptide out to charge at him, but when he saw my shadow running towards him he dropped his sword and sank down in a flash, hands going to his face and fingernails tearing through his hair. From aggressive to submissive, too fast again. I ended up with my sword aimed down at the neck of someone in a surrender position. 

Chiron chose that moment to arrive. He tapped his large hoof, and everybody but Luke froze (he was weakly waving his hands, like "I surrender! Really!"). Chiron raised his eyebrows. "Percy, while I admire your dedication to protecting our camp, it would be good if you didn't immediately behead our visitors." My face flushed as I backed away. Why was he so calm? The last time he'd faced Luke, it was actually his dad, who wanted to kill him and, well, it was complicated.

Chiron trotted slowly over to Luke. Luke looked at the ground and covered the nape of his neck with his hands as if he expected Chiron to behead him. "I - I'm sorry, I didn't expect everyone to hate me." He had tried to sound cocky, but his voice wavered. 

I turned around to see the whole camp had tensed. Some, literally; the whole Apollo cabin had their bows tensed up and pointing at him. Others had their swords drawn. "Gaea let me out because she thought I would help her. She's letting out all the baddies from Tartarus. She was suspicious of me and said if I disobeyed, she'd crush my weak little mortal soul." He laughed bitterly. "She planned on sending me to ... I don't know, some farm? There were a lot of red cows. I had to fight off her will to get here. She almost drowned me in mud, but somehow I got out. I'm back, and you're all going to attack me?" His voice was getting bitter. 

Nico, who I hadn't noticed was next to me, interjected. "You're leaving something out. How did you fight off Gaea, mother of titans? How do we know she didn't just send you in the camp on purpose? Why are your eyes still gold?"

There was a pause. Luke avoided Nico's gaze. He fidgeted and looked vaguely panicky.

"I - that's - not - I think I absorbed Kronos. I was able to fight her off, but only because I had Kronos's power in me." 

Nico crossed his arms. "How do we know Kronos isn't inside of your body, alive and waiting for the right moment to come out? Or maybe he's just controlling your actions right now." I suddenly remembered that Nico hadn't really met Luke before. All he knew was Kronos. 

"No! Guys, Percy, Annabeth! I'm on your side!" Luke sounded desperate.

"NOOOO!" Leo had chosen that moment to rush in on the scene.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry  
> It's so short  
> And not finished I'm adding mor to the chapter larter


	5. ANNABETH

I crossed my arms at Leo, who was panting and bent over. 

"What?" I snapped. Leo raised his eyebrows in surprise. I felt bad. It was Luke I was mad about, and - "Leo, why are your eyes red?" I asked. Darn it. I sounded snappy again. Wy was Luke making me so mad? I remembered when he said Kronos's power helped him - that he couldn't be hurt. I hoped that wasn't true.

"Uh, its allergies." Leo tugged nervously at a stray curl, and leaned in to whisper in my ear. "Don't listen to him. Don't trust him." He nodded obviously at Luke, who clenched his jaw. "I was sleeping by the river so if, uhm, I sneezed in my sleep I'd fall in and not blow fire snot. Then I had this dream of a river spirit telling me not to trust someone, and I think it's Luke. Wait, I know it's Luke." 

Luke was kneeling compliantly, but I saw his eyes glitter dangerously.

"It was just a dream," Leo whispered weakly. "I think I'll be leaving now."

I could tell Leo was hiding something from the way he looked down. And allergies? More like he'd been crying. But I didn't press him. His eyes were glazed over with a thin sheen and the corners of his mouth frowned down miserably.

Chiron tapped his hoof heavily in the dirt, frowning as if deciding on something. 

Luke looked up innocently. I felt my heart jump. Oh gods. No, Annabeth, you can't do this. He's an evil, heartless, angry -

"Please," Luke murmured. "I know this sounds crazy, but I could help you! I can convince Gaea that I'm still working for her, and then we can use that against her! Please Annabeth - "

I glared at him. Oh, he's coming to me now? But he has a point. What?! Why do I think he has a point?! Why is he even persuasive? His hair looks really soft . . . oh shut up, Annabeth. 

Luke caught me staring at him. "I'm stronger than you think, Annabeth. I went down fighting Kronos, against them all. Don't you remember . . . ?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love feedback :)

**Author's Note:**

> Any Suggestions...?  
> 


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